Joaquim Rodriguez climbs to Volta a Catalunya stage 3 win

Katusha’s Joaquim Rodriguez has won stage 3 of the Volta a Catalunya overnight, putting in an attack on the final climb to the La Molina ski station that his main rivals, Chris Froome (Sky) and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) were unable to match.

The Spaniard made his move with 500m left on a stage that saw the big GC contenders come to the fore.

A group of six breakaways riders made an early escape but when the last of those riders, Kevin Reza (Europcar) was reeled in within 5km of the finish, it was time for the likes of Rodriguez, Froome, Contador, and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) to show their wares.

Froome made the first attack but was quickly nullified, before Rodriguez made a move that nobody could counter. He went on to finish the stage five seconds ahead of Contador and nine seconds ahead of Quintana.

Rodriguez now leads the general classification from Contador and Quintana as the riders go into stage 4, arguably the toughest stage of the race thanks to a summit finish at Vallter 2000.

Will Clarke wins Tour de Perth opener

Drapac has started the 2014 National Road Series in convincing fashion with Will Clarke winning the stage 1 criterium at the Tour de Perth last night.

A crash just before the finish line of the technical and at-times-dangerous street circuit in Fremantle saw much of the field taken out of contention for the final sprint. But Clarke escaped unharmed and went on to win ahead of Shannon Johnson (CharterMason Giant) and Anthony Giacoppo (Avanti).

“The whole race was really sketchy but I was able to come through unscathed and eventually take the win,” Clarke said after the race.

“I felt pretty good but it was quite a hard race. I was definitely the beneficiary of having four teammates left in the race at the end. They made sure I was up there.”

Clarke takes a four second lead into the second stage of the four-stage race, a 116km course around Kalamunda.

Sergio Henao speaks about being withdrawn from Sky’s racing schedule

Sergio Henao has made his first press appearance since being withdrawn from racing by Team Sky, following team testing which revealed anomalous biological values.

Henao told Cycling News he “shares and understands the attention Team Sky is giving to the blood value the last monthly control has highlighted,” explaining that he has “always believed in the ethical values of cycling, and that honesty and respect for the rules come before anything else.”

Henao continued that he is keen to “collaborate with the team to complete the medical-scientific investigation with the aim to help the investigation.”

Team Sky is investigating whether Henao spending the winter at his home in Colombia, at an altitude of 2,125 metres, led to his unusual blood values.

“I have nothing to hide and I’m not worried. The team want to analyse things and look at it all and I will comply with them,” he said.

“Since arriving at Team Sky I have done 30 controls and I have never had a problem. This is internal with the team. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has never said that there was something suspicious.”

Back in February Cookson and the UCI suggested cyclocross, which isn’t yet an Olympic sport, should be part of the Winter Olympics, even though it’s not held consistently on ice or snow (a pre-requisite for sports at the Winter Olympics).

SRM launches FSA K-Force UCB Powermeter with user changeable battery

SRM has launched a new FSA Powermeter which features a user-changeable battery for the first time. The axle stores two AA batteries, a significant departure from existing SRM powermeters which need to be sent back to Germany to have batteries replaced.

The FSA K-Force Light BB386 EVO with the SRM Powermeter spiders reportedly comes in at 784g (without bottom bracket) and is being offered in a 50/34 setup, with a 53/39 coming soon.

Too close

The Cyclocable

Here’s a piece of road-side technology from Trondheim in Norway, for cyclists that aren’t fans of climbing super-steep hills. The Trampe is a motorised aid for cyclists, much like a ski lift, which you ride up to, put your foot on while still sitting on your bike, and let the device pull you up the hill.

The Trampe was initially opened in the 1990s but fell into disrepair. It has since been reopened and is free for all cyclists to use on the 18% hill you see in the video above.

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Really enjoying the Cape Epic videos you’ve been positing – lot of respect for the folks in that event.

CB

Some may see this as pedantic but if there is an event with the same title run for both men AND women, perhaps both should be prefaced with the words ‘the men’s’ and ‘the women’s’ DdV?

Dave

But would it not be the case that the women’s race, like all women’s races, is totally reliant upon being subsidised by the men’s race which is rightfully seen as the main event?

Can you name *any* women’s races in the world which are successful in their own right without being paid for by the revenue of the men’s race? The highest-ranked women’s race in the world last year couldn’t even afford sufficient traffic escorts!

Michele

From Inrng: I guess you could argue that the bike path looks rougher than the road they are suppose to be riding on.

I wonder if any thought to themselves, ‘Why am I riding along this horrible, undulating path, whilst 3 metres to my left is a nice piece of bitumen road?’

I don’t know if the reference in that ‘Cyclocable’ video was correct, but it referred to a slope of 18 degrees, not 18%. If true, it is 32.4%!

On another matter – almost can’t stand Carlton Kirby’s commentary. Hopeless in the Catalunya video above, and awful in the MSR commentary on SBS. Please SBS, get Matt and Scott.

Michele

I can’t stand Carlton – no offense to him.

I actually ended up listening to the local Italian’s coverage thru Internet. I know about 6 words in 10 – I can work out the ‘gist’ of the other 4.

Loved how the excitement rose a notch [or 12] when Nibali went on the attack.

Dave

Italian F1 commentary is reasonably easy to understand. The only thing which has changed in the last 15 years is that now you can tell whether or not Alonso is out front where it used to be only good for telling whether Schumacher was winning.

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